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Few will dispute that Canada should be able to deport serious criminals who aren’t citizens. Convicted murderers leap to mind, as do terrorists and violent sex offenders. But what about a 50-year-old who came here as a permanent resident as a child from the United States, say, or China or Portugal, who never took out citizenship but built a life here, and who commits a relatively minor offence?

Setting aside whether such people should be regarded as “foreigners,” should they be swiftly deported to a country where they may have no close family, no job prospects and where they might not speak the language — all for getting into a fist fight outside a nightclub, which can draw a six-month jail term for common assault? Or for shoplifting, dangerous driving, causing a public disturbance, threatening to damage property, or mischief?

In effect, this imposes a “one strike and you’re out” rule that mocks the principle that small-time offenders deserve a second chance. That could affect thousands of people.

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It doesn’t end there. C-43 makes no distinction between conditional sentences, served in the community for less serious offences, and jail sentences. Conditional sentences tend to be longer. The bill also curtails access to a review for people who get into trouble abroad. Other misguided aspects of the bill let the government arbitrarily deny entry to Canada on the vague grounds of “public policy,” sharply curb ministerial discretion in humanitarian and compassionate review, and are overly harsh on people who misrepresent themselves.

The Canadian Bar Association has voiced “serious concerns” about all this. So have opposition parties in Parliament. The government has tried to legitimize the bill by pointing to cases where permanent residents rang up a string of minor offences, appealed deportation orders and then graduated to serious crime. But is the answer a mechanism that could deport countless minor offenders for isolated acts of youthful folly, lapses in judgment or sheer stupidity? This “solution” may prove worse than the problem it purports to remedy.

Given its majority, the Harper government has the power to ram C-43 into law unchanged. It will be interesting to see how Canadians react to long-time residents with established roots in the community suddenly being deported for being caught with a bag of grass, or for a particularly dumb lapse behind the wheel.

By far the better policy would be to rewrite this witless legislation. Ottawa should leave the right of appeal as it is, for people sentenced to less than two years. In no case should conditional sentences count. People who get into trouble abroad should have a review. And other harsh aspects of the bill should be rethought.

Criminals should do their time. No one disputes that. But let’s draw the line at exiling Canadian residents for trifling offences.

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